Employee Mobility Program Assessment for a Leading Manufacturer

Success Stories: Employee Mobility Program Assessment for a Leading Manufacturer

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A leading manufacturing company engaged BGRS to assess their global mobility services structure, roles, and responsibilities. Their goal was to design a more efficient mobility program that supports business objectives and aligns to industry best practices.

CLIENT PROFILE

Industry:

Manufacturing

HQ Region:

NORTH AMERICA

Program Size:

1,200 mobile employees

Services Provided:

  • Talent Mobility Program Administration
  • Talent Mobility Consulting
  • Extended Business Travel
  • Financial Services
    • Cost Estimates
    • Expense Management
    • Compensation

CLIENT OBJECTIVES

The organization, a long-term client of BGRS, looked to comprehensively assess their approach to employee mobility management. Their in-house mobility and Human Resources (HR) leaders sought ways to:

  • Enable internal resources to be more strategically involved in supporting business units
  • Leverage data-driven insights to better align their mobility program to global business needs

The assessment program objectives included:

  • Review roles and outline responsibilities of their mobility team in their headquarters
  • Gain recommendations to evolve the global mobility program and better align it with global business and talent management strategies
  • Evaluate processes, services, and tasks which can effectively be outsourced to reorient internal resources to more strategic initiatives
  • Identify opportunities for program optimization and ways to achieve efficiencies

"We knew we needed to enhance our mobility program to help us better meet evolving business needs. It was also critical for us to effectively define key areas that required more focus. The BGRS team brought the necessary industry expertise, consultancy framework, and the knowledge of our program to the table."

Head of Mobility

BGRS SOLUTION

Based on an initial discovery phase, involving site visits and in-depth stakeholder interviews, BGRS’s Consulting group developed a tailored assessment project plan. It was designed to comprehensively assess the client’s mobility program across the end-to-end mobility experience, including meeting, communications, and reporting frameworks. The assessment covered the entire mobility lifecycle from assignment pre-approval through repatriation and post-assignment planning as well as other mobility types, such as permanent transfers for current and new employees and extended business travel.

The comprehensive assessment program yielded a series of specific recommendations which focused on three key areas of the client’s program:

  • Roles and Responsibilities
    • Streamline current practices to allow mobility team members to provide more support to the business units and HR team
    • Identify avenues for closer partnership with HR to support globally consistent talent management, candidate selection, succession planning, and long-range career planning for mobile employees
    • Establish guidelines for regional decision-making authority and an escalation protocol with global oversight
    • Enhance descriptions of the in-house mobility team and other key service provider roles and provide role overviews to the internal stakeholders, such as HR and hiring managers
  • Communication
    • Review or develop employee-facing policies for all key mobility types and provide employees with easier, more transparent access to benefits information
    • Develop general information toolkits to enable initial assignment planning for hiring managers
    • Implement more robust communication plans for new mobility guidelines, policy, and technology rollouts organization-wide
    • Improve the use of mobility technology to provide mobile employees with real-time updates on key milestones
  •  Technology
    • Better leverage the intranet site to provide first line mobility resources to HR and business units
    • Adopt processes to ensure full compliance with data integrity from internal and external sources
    • Utilize a single integrated platform as the client’s system of record and fully leverage the tools to optimize program efficiency, enhance the mobile employee experience, and automate reporting capabilities
    • Increase usage of productivity tools, such as an online interactive move timeline, to track the progress of a mobile employee’s move and leverage configurable digital tools to house “client specific” material (i.e., training modules, “country specific” information, action logs, reports)

Following the recommendations BGRS and the client engaged in a joint prioritization exercise resulting in a program optimization roadmap and the development of an action plan.

RESULTS AND OUTCOMES

Since the assessment delivery, BGRS supported the client in advancing the implementation of the following:

  • Redesigned policy suite and use of digital tools for improved employee accessibility to their move-related information
  • Revised and standardized benefits structure for repatriating employees
  • Redesigned the pre-approval process and stakeholder involvement
  • Implemented a tailored, high-touch VIP program for senior mobile employees
  • Reviewed supply chain relationships including optimization and outsourcing of supply chain management mobility team
  • Implemented enhanced automated reporting framework to address the needs resulting from the mobility function repositioning
  • Implemented automated compliance risk reporting for business travelers

"The main benefit of this tailored program was the framework that guided our team through this process and allowed us to focus on areas of the mobility program that weren’t of focus before. BGRS validated our assumptions on where we lack robust process or support. They provided us with extensive guidance and support on how we can strengthen these areas and free my team for more strategic initiatives."

Head of Mobility

Clear strategy, well defined roles and responsibilities, and effective processes are essential to the success of mobility programs. By partnering with BGRS’s Consulting group, the client was able to identify opportunities, streamline key areas of their mobility function, and challenge the status quo. The in-house team is now able to better focus on their role as a strategic business partner while ensuring the mobile employee experience and mobility compliance risks are effectively managed.

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